Muammar Gaddafi's body to undergo autopsy in Misrata

The body of ousted Libyan strongman Muammar Gaddafi lies on a mattress in the cold storage room of a vegetable market near a mosque in the outskirts of Misrata on October 21, 2011. Libya's leaders faced huge pressure to proclaim the country's liberation and move toward democracy, amid euphoria over the killing of Gaddafi under still murky circumstances.

Credit:

PHILIPPE DESMAZES

An autopsy on Muammar Gaddafi's body was to be carried out Saturday in Misrata, the city where the Libyan ex-leader''s corpse is being kept in a refrigerator at a market.

There burial of Gaddafi's body has been delayed due to questions about how he died, and differences of opinions over his grave. There have been reports that Libya's National Transitional Council will conduct a secret burial, and some speculation that Gaddafi could even be buried at sea, as happened to Osama bin Ladan, to prevent his grave from becoming a shrine.

According to BBC News, Misrata's chief forensic doctor, Othman al-Zintani, told al-Arabiya TV that full autopsies would be carried out on the bodies of Gaddafi and his son Mutassim, both of whom were killed after their capture Thursday near Sirte.

Hundreds of Libyans have lined up outside the market in Misrata to get a look at Gaddafi's body.

"The body, stripped to the waist and wearing beige trousers, was laid on a bloodied mattress on the floor of an emptied-out room-sized freezer where restaurants and stores in the center normally keep perishables," the Associated Press reports.

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